Putting guanxi back into the study of multinational Chinese family business

Abstract

Research conducted into the areas of guanxi and family business has lasted for decades. Nevertheless, little research has been carried out to combine the two areas. Since the behaviour of family firms has been labelled as more emotional when compared to nonfamily businesses, it is assumable that guanxi, which is also closely associated with human emotions, should be dealt with differently in the context of family businesses. By adopting a case study method, this study investigates guanxi in four large, Taiwanese-owned, multinational Chinese family businesses in order to elucidate whether or not quanxi has altered over time in the Chinese family business setting as formal institutions have become more developed. Our findings reveal that, in general, very few changes have indeed occurred to guanxi in the family firms we studied as formal institutions have become more developed.